Wuhan lab director says US intelligence report is "a complete lie"
From CNN's Chandler Thornton
Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Hubei province on February 3. Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images
The director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Lab told Chinese state media Monday the claim in a new United States intelligence report that several researchers at the lab were hospitalized in November 2019, was "a complete lie."
"Those claims are groundless," lab director Yuan Zhiming told nationalist tabloid Global Times. "The lab has not been aware of this situation, and I don't even know where such information came from."
CNN has reached out to China's Foreign Ministry for a response. The ministry will hold its daily press briefing on Monday at 3 p.m. local time.
5:20 a.m. ET, May 24, 2021
India becomes third country to top 300,000 Covid-19 deaths as vaccine shortage bites
From CNN's Esha Mitra in New Delhi
Relatives bury the body of a Covid-19 victim at a graveyard in New Delhi, on May 22. Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images
India reported 4,454 new Covid-19 fatalities on Monday, bringing the country's death toll to 303,720, according to the Indian Ministry of Health.
India is the third country to report more than 300,000 deaths from the virus, after Brazil and the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The health ministry also reported 222,315 new coronavirus infections, marking the fourth consecutive day that the number of cases reported in the country have declined.
However, Monday's death count is the highest daily death toll reported since May 19.
India has reported a total of 26,752,447 cases of coronavirus, according to the Indian Ministry of Health on Monday. At least 196,051,962 doses of Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered since January 16.
In the capital region of Delhi, supplies of the Covaxin vaccine may have already run out, Atishi Marlena, a senior member of the local government tweeted Sunday.
“It a serious matter of concern that after Monday, Covaxin will not be available for the second vaccine dose of those in the 45+ category!” Marlena said.
According to the Delhi government’s vaccination bulletin on Sunday evening, 1,530 doses of Covaxin vaccines were available in the territory.
The Delhi government on Sunday halted vaccinations for those between the ages of 18 and 44 due to a shortage of vaccines.
“There is a shortage of vaccines in the whole country ... if everyone receives the vaccine then perhaps we can save ourselves from the third wave,” Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Sunday.
The Ministry of Health said states will be provided 40,650 vaccine doses over the next three days.
3:20 a.m. ET, May 24, 2021
Black fungus cases in India rise to nearly 9,000 as government tries to fulfil drug requirements
From CNN's Esha Mitra in New Delhi
India has recorded at least 8,848 cases of black fungus, or mucormycosis, according to data shared by a senior government minister Saturday, prompting officials to allocate more medicine to states and union territories.
Black fungus is a fungal infection that has increasingly been found among patients who have recovered from Covid-19 in India, and especially in patients who suffer from diabetes.
Gujarat is the worst-hit state with 2,281 cases, followed by Maharashtra with 2,000 cases, according to data. Cases have now been detected in 23 of India's 36 states and union territories, according to data from India's Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Sadanand Gowda.
Maharashtra state health minister Rajesh Tope said last week that the state, which has had at least 90 deaths from the disease, is facing a shortage of Amphotericin B for which it has issued a global tender.
As of Saturday, Maharashtra had received 5,090 additional vials of the drug, and Tope told reporters last week he has placed an order for 190,000 vials.
2:36 a.m. ET, May 24, 2021
Japan sees low uptake as vaccination drive ramps up in Tokyo and Osaka
From CNN's Chandler Thornton and Junko Ogura
Nurses wait to inoculate people with the Moderna coronavirus vaccine at the newly-opened mass vaccination centre in Tokyo, Japan on May 24. Carl Court/Getty Images
Japan has opened large-scale Covid-19 vaccination centers in Tokyo and Osaka with hopes to speed up its inoculation rollout.
The government said it aims to vaccinate up to 15,000 people per day. But on Monday, just 5,000 people were scheduled to receive shots at the Tokyo site and 2,500 at the Osaka facility.
The venues were set up by the central government and will administer Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine.
About 180 doctors and nurses from the Japanese Self-Defense Forces will work at the Tokyo site and 100 doctors and nurses will staff the Osaka venue.
Online reservations opened last week for people aged 65 and older in Tokyo and Osaka.
Senior citizens in the neighboring prefectures of Chiba, Saitama and Kanagawa, as well as Kyoto and Hyogo, can book from next Monday.
The women possibly at higher risk for Covid-19 that no one is talking about
From CNN's Alessandria Masi
Last July, when her immediate family tested positive for Covid-19, Breanna Aguilar did not fit into any groups considered at higher risk for severe disease.
She is 31 years old, a pet sitter and former fitness teacher who once ran a half marathon. She was, by most measures, healthy.
When Aguilar got Covid-19 she lost her sense of taste, had mild fevers and muscle weakness. She could barely keep anything down yet gained about 30 pounds. Later, she developed pelvic pain, cystic acne, breast tenderness, headaches, brain fog and extreme fatigue.
It has been months since then, but she says the low energy, chronic pain and brain fog -- long-haul Covid-19 symptoms -- remain and she can't even go for a 15-minute walk without needing a break. She's also now dealing with insulin resistance and taking several medications to keep that and her hormone levels under some control. Her doctor told her she'll likely be dealing with this fallout of Covid-19 for the rest of her life.
More than a year into the pandemic, one study has found that some women are at higher risk for Covid-19 compared to others in their age and sex groups. These women, often young and otherwise healthy like Aguilar, have an underlying condition that isn't mentioned on any Covid-19 comorbidity list: polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS.
PCOS, which affect about 1 in 10 women of "childbearing age," is an imbalance of reproductive hormones that can lead to irregular menstrual cycles, high androgen levels and ovarian cysts. But it can also come with a host of other health problems, nearly all of which overlap Covid-19 comorbidities.
New information on Wuhan researchers' illness furthers debate on pandemic origins
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand, Kylie Atwood, Katie Bo Williams and Zachary Cohen
A US intelligence report found that several researchers at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill in November 2019 and had to be hospitalized, a new detail about the severity of their symptoms that could fuel further debate about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, according to two people briefed on the intelligence.
A State Department fact sheet released by the Trump administration in January said that the researchers had gotten sick in autumn 2019 but did not go as far as to say they had been hospitalized. China reported to the World Health Organization that the first patient with Covid-like symptoms was recorded in Wuhan on December 8, 2019.
Importantly, the intelligence community still does not know what the researchers were actually sick with, said the people briefed, and continues to have low confidence in its assessments of the virus' precise origins beyond the fact that it came from China. "At the end of the day, there is still nothing definitive," said one of the people who has seen the intelligence.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers during the Worldwide Threats Hearing last month that "the intelligence community does not know exactly where, when, or how Covid-19 virus was transmitted initially," an assessment that has not changed, said two of the people briefed on the intelligence.
The current intelligence reinforces the belief that the virus most likely originated naturally, from animal-human contact, the sources said. But that does not preclude the possibility that the virus was the result of an accidental leak from the Wuhan Institute, where coronavirus research was being conducted on bats.
